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LAWYERS ARE sounding the alarm about
the backlog in court systems across Canada.
"ere's a problem. And I think it's fair
to say it's at a crisis level," says Hilary Book,
founder of Toronto-based Book Law and
a director of e Advocates' Society, a
Canada-wide organization dedicated to
maintaining the role of the advocate in the
administration of justice.
While delays in criminal justice matters
or family law cases oen capture the public's
attention, less notice is paid to delays in civil
litigation, especially commercial or business
disputes. ose kinds of cases may not be
dealing with the infringement of people's
rights and liberties or the custody and safety
of children, but they are not unimportant.
"ere's a huge societal cost to all of
this. One of the primary functions of the
courts is to allow businesses to function and
settle disputes. When that doesn't happen,
it impacts the ability of the economy to
operate," says Craig Ferris, a partner in
Lawson Lundell LLP's dispute resolution
and litigation group in Vancouver. "We
pride ourselves in Canada on having a free
and democratic society with world-class,
gold-standard institutions. Sometimes our
justice system doesn't measure up to that,
and people aren't as keen to do business in
Canada because of some of those issues."
Ferris tells of a foreign national client
trying to schedule a two-day application – a
process that happens near the beginning of
a lawsuit. Ferris had to book it three times,
as the first two dates were bumped. at
resulted in a half-year delay, which le the
client questioning the impartiality of the
Canadian justice system. Ferris told the
client it had nothing to do with his nation-
ality; it was just how the system operated.
"It starts to degrade the perception of the
quality of justice."
Rather than having unresolved disputes,
businesses oen look outside the court
system and consider alternatives such as
mediation or arbitration. is is especially
true when a dispute involves an ongoing
relationship or what omas Sutton, a
COURT DELAYS
HAMPER DISPUTE
RESOLUTION
Feature
CANADIAN COURT BACKLOGS ARE NOT
ONLY AFFECTING ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR
CRIMINAL AND FAMILY LAW. COMMERCIAL
CASES TAKE YEARS TO RESOLVE, DRIVING
COMPANIES AWAY FROM LITIGATION, WHICH
IS HURTING THE ECONOMY, LAWYERS TELL
CAROLYN GRUSKE
